Bloom Day - January 2008

Carol at May Dreams Gardens invites us to tell her what’s blooming in our gardens on the 15th of each month.

The promised December freezes came eventually, taking with them most of the blooms in my little garden, but not the wildlife. This giant philodendron, from which peeks a little green anole, suffered quite a bit of freeze damage to its outermost layers, but in the shelter of its big prehistoric leaves, it looks healthy still.

Underneath its thick layer of hay and leaf mulch, my vegetable garden appears to be healthy and happy, and we’ve gotten a few salads’ worth of pickings from the lettuce.

Carya illinoinensis

Elsewhere in the garden, we’ve planted a few fruit and nut trees from bare root stock. They look so dead and sad right now, so I've taken it upon myself to adorn them, to help them feel a little less naked. This, I think, is the definition of hope: to bury a stick in the ground and wait for it to grow into a tree.

Pea Blossom

Inside the vegetable garden, the snap pea vine is the only thing truly blooming at the moment. Legumes make pretty blossoms, don't they? I'll admit that peas aren't my favorite vegetable, thanks to their texture, but since they're nitrogen-fixing, I'll grow them anyway. I imagine that garden-fresh peas are preferable to the store-bought ones anyway. If you look closely, you can see the first pea pod developing in the bottom-left.

Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)

Henbit is the only exception to my statement above; this winter annual weed is blooming, too, in great abundance. I pull it out of my vegetable beds, but everywhere else, I mostly let it be. I might regret that later, but I like the tiny purple blooms right now.

Oxalis

In my shade bed, the oxalis blooms cheerfully under the protective shelter of the giant philodendron. I love oxalis, both in its cultivated and weedy forms, and I don't mind it spreading where it will. I dug up some little tubers from the shady greenbelt behind my last place and transplanted them here; I can't wait for them to start blooming, and the way the leaves are growing, I think they will before the next bloom day. This white oxalis has bloomed continually since we moved here in June.

Bulbine frutescens

After slowing down for a few weeks, the bulbines in the sunny front yard look like they're picking up steam and starting to bloom more vigorously again. According to that old adage, they're supposed to be either in their 'sleeping' or 'creeping' year right now, but they seem to be growing healthily. That makes me happy - I can't wait to start dividing and conquering the world with bulbine.

Salvia greggii

Another consistent good performer in my yard, this salvia can always be counted on to bloom. After taking this photo, I pruned it way back, so it might be another couple of months before it shows up on the bloom report again.

African basil

And last but not least for this month is African basil. This plant is somewhat frost-sensitive, so it isn't actually in my garden yet. The picture doesn't make it obvious, but this is a cutting that has been sitting in my kitchen window since September. This is the easiest propagation I've ever done: cut new growth, remove lower leaves, and place in water in a vase. This crazy plant is putting on new growth and blooming already in its vase. In my mom's garden, from which I took these cuttings, the African basil grew huge, and I'm looking forward to finding a place for this one when spring comes.

That's everything blooming in my Austin garden this month. I'm hopeful that our periodic warm spells will bring out more for February. I can already see the beginnings of buds on my mountain laurel!